Will Palin's folksy persona keep working for her?

Republican vice-presidential hopeful stops the bleeding - at least for now

By

RussBritt

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- What do two "darns," a "doggone," a "Joe Six Pack" and three uses each of the term "bless" and "Main Street" get you?

It gets you through a debate with Joe Biden, that's what. The folksy persona of Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska -- never more clearly enunciated than in her Thursday night debate for the vice presidency with the Democratic senator from Delaware -- seems to have helped stop the public relations tidal wave that was crashing down upon her.

Whether the Palin persona can help the sagging fortunes of GOP presidential nominee John McCain remains to be seen, but it seems certain that she at least put a tourniquet on the bad press that had surrounded her. And it may have been as simple as Palin being Palin - or at least accentuating the candidate's image.

"I think it played well last night and it will continue to play well as long as it is perceived to be genuine," said David Bartlett, senior vice president at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, D.C. "The message she was trying to send out was, 'I'm like you'."

Bartlett, who also has authored a book on communications, says he thinks Palin's persona was genuine, but it may have trouble retaining staying power.

While she dropped a "darn" here and there, Palin also winked at the camera, never seemed to stop smiling and even gave a "shout out" to a third-grade class. She also salted in the terms "hockey mom" and "soccer mom," all with a trace of an accent commonly known as "Minnesota nice."

That homespun accent, mocked in the 1996 film "Fargo," has been exaggerated somewhat by actress Tina Fey in her comic imitations of Palin on "Saturday Night Live."

"The danger there is the folksiness could get old. 'Fargo' only lasted for an hour and a half," Bartlett said. "Or it could become inauthentic. The authenticity could come to be doubted. That's a serious danger."

Immediate polls showed that Biden, running mate to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., won the debate. CNN, CBS News/Knowledge Networks and a text message and web poll from HCD Research all gave Biden the node. The HCD poll showed independents called it in favor of Biden by 69% to 31%.

Most pundits agree Palin committed no major gaffes during the debate as she sometimes went on the attack, and seemed to have her facts in order. She sometimes veered off subject, but warned Biden and moderator Gwen Ifill she would do so.

Bartlett says poll results and punditry may not be rooted in reality when it comes to voters who often try to find someone they can relate to in a presidential candidate.

"When it comes time to make those decisions, that's how people make them," he said.

Jordan Lieberman, publisher of the non-partisan Politics Magazine, agrees. He says the discussion about Palin's competency that stemmed from her troubled interviews with CBS News anchor Katie Couric has been put to rest for at least a while.

"I think average voters are looking for someone to connect with on a person-to-person level, as opposed to someone who's like a Ken doll or Woodrow Wilson," Lieberman said. "I think there's a large swath of the electorate who want someone to relate to."

Lieberman, who also found Palin's persona to be believable, says he doesn't see it wearing on voters. He adds others may imitate it.

"I don't think it's going to get old. I think you're going to see a lot more of it in the future," he said.

In recent weeks, McCain has lost significant ground to Obama in a number of critical states as the economy has soured and Palin's competency came into question.

Palin's performance seems to have put the brakes on that, but it's doubtful she can help turn McCain's fortunes back up at this point, he added.

"I think [McCain's] numbers are going to stop shifting rapidly," Lieberman said. "The numbers are starting to cement. There's not too many more ways to change the electoral landscape."

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